Spring fever turns to summer heat!

I finally had to get my head out of the books long enough to recognize that I'm getting wanderlust! My partner, holistic health counselor and friend has organized a trip to the 30th Montreal Jazz Festival! The trip is based out of the northeast with a train trip from New York to Montreal. If you are not in the northeast, we can get a flight for you!
Check out this flyer.

Healing Mother’s Spirit!
Ultimate You!! Accommodations
30th Annual Montreal Jazz Festival (2009)
(http://www.montrealjazzfest.com/Fijm2008/festival_en.aspx)

Tuesday, 30 June 7:20 A.M. through Sunday, 5 July (2009), 8:30 A.M.

New York Penn Station to Montreal, Quebec Canada
Discounted Roundtrip Ticket from New York - $115.00 U.S.
Discounted Rate in effect until 31 March (2009)
(Only seventy (70) discounted seats available)

Hotel Accommodations in Montreal
Holiday Inn Express @ 155 Boulevard Rene-Lesveque
Discounted Rate Available Until 30 April (2009)
Rates from $129 to $159 CAD – Doubles to Quads
Free Daily Continental Breakfast

Other Available Attractions
Special Jazz Festival Packages through this Offer
Montreal Area Sight-Seeing Tours
Chinatown-Montreal A Stroll Away
Old Montreal Boutiques, Restaurants, and Shops
Featured Vegetarian and Vegetarian-Friendly Restaurants
Professional Health Practitioner Brochures On-board the Train
Six-Flags Type Theme Park a mere subway-ride away
Caribbean Festival and Parade

!!! PASSPORTS ARE REQUIRED FOR THIS EXCURSION !!!

Choose Your Jazz Show – Free and Ticketed Concerts All Day Long
Jazz Festival In Walking Distance - Just Bring A Seat Cushion!!

Kevin S. McPherson-El
Healing Mother’s Spirit!
www.UltimateYouAccommodations.com
UltimateYouAccommodations@hotmail.com
267.322.0527

Cruise Now, Pay Later on the Playboy Jazz Cruise!

Come aboard Holland America’s m/s Westerdam on January 25th for a 7 day and night Caribbean cruise and experience the Jazz festival at sea and… CRUISE NOW and PAY LATER! You will get to experience all the shows, entertainment, activities and events and the same top quality of cabin, service, meals and ports of call as everyone else onboard, BUT without having to pay everything at once!
Join Grammy® Award Winning Marcus Miller and Playboy Jazz Cruise Special Guest, 2008 Grammy® Album of the Year winner Herbie Hancock - along with vocalist Dianne Reeves, considered one of the pre-eminent female jazz vocalists in the world. Festival favorite, blues guitarist and singer/songwriter Keb' Mo', will bring his distinct brand of blues to the mix. Sure to spice up the onboard party is Poncho Sanchez, leader of one of the most popular Latin jazz groups in the world. One of the most enduring figures in modern jazz, master saxophonist James Moody will also perform, as will premier trumpeter Roy Hargrove, saxophone virtuoso James Carter, and dazzling young jazz pianist Eldar. Rounding out the lineup are vocalist Roberta Gambarini, New Orleans' famous New Birth Brass Band, Last Comic Standing Alonzo Bodden and many more musicians onboard.
The ports of call are San Juan, Nevis, St. Barths and Half Moon Cay leaving from Fort Lauderdale. I can help you get onboard, just email me!

Traveling by Air? Ways to avoid baggage fees!

The holiday travel season is coming upon us and many will travel by land this year(gas here is as low as $1.69 per gallon). Others will be rushing to airports, where they will be faced with new airline fees for checked baggage. Many travelers are striving to pack more efficiently and fly with only a carry-on. The goal is simple: you want to visit your destination without running out of clean socks or overstuffing your suitcase. Packing for a trip is often a struggle of distinguishing what we want to bring from what we need to bring. Here are 5 tips from IndependentTraveler.com, a leader in online travel information, to help achieve this goal:
1. Rethink the wardrobe
Stick to wardrobe essentials. Choose clothes in neutral colors that can be mixed and matched and pack a travel-size packet of laundry detergent to wash clothes while traveling. Bring no more than two pairs of shoes one to be packed and one to be worn on the plane.
2. Simplify the beauty regimen
Don't lug an army of beauty products across the globe. Instead, use hotel toiletries or pack products with multiple uses, such as a moisturizer with SPF or a combination shampoo/conditioner. To meet security requirements, make sure that liquid products in containers of 3 ounces or less are in a quart-size zip-top, clear plastic bag.
3. Pick 1 favorite book
Don't weigh a suitcase down with books. Pack one comprehensive guidebook and use Internet cafes as necessary to look up additional information on the road.
4. Leave the crown jewels at home
Leave all valuable at home. Fancy watches and jewelry are targets for thieves and can prevent travelers from fitting into the local culture.
5. Forget the gizmos
Pack only indispensable electronic gadgets. Skip the toothbrush sanitizer, ocean sound machine and other extraneous items.
If you would like help with packing more efficiently, check out www.independenttraveler.com/packing. You can get an interactive packing list featuring more than 100 commonly packed items. This online tool lets travelers create a personalized packing list to save, print or e-mail to oneself or a friend.
Happy traveling!

Greens, Blues and a Dixie Peach

I had to go back to Philly 2 weeks ago and had to stop by a club that I hadn't gone to in May. It is called North by Northwest and is located on Germantown Avenue in Mt. Airy. I was in for a pleasant surprise. They had a wonderful buffet for their dinner entree and I thought that I was back in Nashville. It consisted of country style ribs, collard greens, mac & cheese, mixed vegetables, catfish, fried chicken, jambalaya, salad and waffles. They had a live band with a white woman from Macon, Georgia singing the blues and she was coming correct! I knew that Mt. Airy was returning to it earlier days of diversity, but, I wasn't aware of this change. If you are in the neighborhood, stop in. The atmosphere was great and the people were gracious!
Check out this video to get a feel of North by Northwest and other businesses in Mt. Airy.

The Hunt for Semi Precious Stones!

I am the Queen of traveling on a budget, while continuing to have a vacation that brings great value and satisfaction. I also love trendy jewelry and usually shop for semi precious stones on our Caribbean family vacations. On the second day of our vacation cruise, the Shopping Director had a seminar on the legalities of duty free shopping in Nassau and told us about special deals and gifts that merchants were offering to cruise vacationers. To take advantage of the deals we just needed to present coupons, which were distributed during this meeting.


So off my girls and I went. Our first stop was at the Straw Market or what we would call the Swap Meet. It was just too intense for us. The aisle way between the stalls was narrow and the prices of some of the knockoffs were higher than here in the states. We then proceeded to check our map, examined our notes and were off to the air-conditioned stores.
The first store that we visited Diamonds International, which is supposed to have the largest selection of diamonds and diamond jewelry in the Caribbean. They will allow you to trade in your diamond for a bigger or brighter diamond and you can create your dream piece with the help of the master jewelers that are on staff. My girls received a free 14kt electroplated charm bracelet with a DI charm on it. They will be able to get a free charm when they visit a Diamond International in another country.


Next, we visited Del Sol, which is known as the world’s largest color-change retailer. They have all types of shirts, sunglasses, head coverings and fingernail polish that changes color when exposed to UV rays. They received free lanyards, which were great for carrying their passport. We also purchased some fun nail polish.
Our next stop was at Venetian Jewelers. This store is known as the only place for purchasing Sophia Fiori’s blues diamonds. Sophia Fiori’s style is trendy and eclectic and the girls received a free 1-carat midnight sapphire. This gemstone is appraised at $100 and can be used to get $100 off a 5-carat sapphire or jewelry piece.

I love emeralds and had to oh and ahh at settings which contained my birthstone at Colombian Emeralds International. Whenever I visit, I find another piece that I will get.


Our last stop was Effy Jewelers, which is reported to be the discount store for Diamonds International. The girls were given a silver necklace with an amethyst pendant and were able to purchase a matching pair of earrings for $10. We were ecstatic over the gifts and walked past Starbucks and Subway to get back onboard, so that we could have lunch!

Your Cheatin' Heart

I did not realize that the main reason people do not cruise is that they have a fear that the ship will sink or that the trip will be so turbulent that they will spend most of their time in the bathroom. I want to assure you that today’s cruise ships have stabilizers that take the jolt out of your trip. In fact, I never know when the ship has left the port.

You will find me somewhere onboard getting my party started! For example, I won a medal for knowing that Hank William’s wrote Your Cheatin’ Heart in response to problems that he was having with wife. Living in Music City, USA, made the answer to that trivia question a no brainer.
I know that I told you earlier that I had to leave the ship wearing my sarongs. Well, the prelude to that action was on our first evening.
We had traveled all night to get to the ship and so to relax, my girls and I went to the sauna and steam room. The steam room was also on hyper drive because it was so hot, that we could not breathe. In fact, our eyeballs were burning! The sauna was relaxing. We made it back to our room and prepared for dinner. However, a piece of my luggage did not arrive by 8 pm. I put on a sarong as a skirt and one as a shawl, found my luggage in the lobby of the information booth (the tag had fallen off) and went to dinner. I need to keep a sarong with me at all times.

What happened on the day that you took your passport picture!

I am still euphoric! I have cruised before and that experience is what fuels my passion for travel. I was so excited about our cruise that I did not mind the 13-hour road trip that my family had before us. We finally get everything into the van one hour after the predetermined departure time and then we have to remove everything because Lady Sai has misplaced her cell phone. The phone is on vibrate and is somewhere beneath the back seat. We do not find it until we can locate a flashlight that has batteries in it because it is evening. Now, why is there such panic for this phone? Well, Sai is a teenager and my teens have been have been told that they cannot text or make calls once the ship leaves the port at 4 pm the next day. What will they do for three nights with no cell service? We find the phone, repack the car and we’re off to our next stop, Birmingham Alabama. Two and a half hours later, we have additional passengers, my niece and cousin. And we’re off again. We make it to Atlanta, where my husband and I tease our son. We tell him that he should call his girlfriend and tell her to wave at us as we pass near her house. He didn’t think that we were so funny!
We noticed that there were fewer 18-wheelers on the road. I am told that the high cost of fuel has affected how distributors are shipping their goods. At daylight, I take over the drive and get us to Port Canaveral, where our ship, Carnival’s Sensation is docked. Porters assist us with our checked luggage and we then proceed to Customs and Immigration. The boarding process was a lot less chaotic than I remember it to be in Miami and would have been even more convenient, if I had known that I could take advantage of my VIP check-in status. We continue the boarding process with another check of credentials and the establishment of on board accounts. You really know that you are getting closer to entering the ship when you take those first two pictures, one that you never see, but security does and the one everyone will see later in the photo gallery. My niece, Tia said on our last evening that she could finally have a meal without having to pose. I will tell you more later!